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Ranking the Fergburgers

If there is one thing synonymous with food in Queenstown, it is Fergburger. And having been in Queenstown quite often, I’ve been presented with many opportunities to sample Fergburger’s diverse and delightful options. In the interests of science, I have tasked myself with cover Ferg’s menu as much as I could. While I haven’t tried EVERYTHING on the menu, I’ve had enough to at least quantify my experiences here.

First thing you need to know about Fergburger, is that these are BIG burgers.

Second, is that they use amazingly good, high quality ingredients.

Third, and most importantly, they use magic and possibly mystical beings to create the wonderfully diverse tastes.

Now that the preamble is done, onward with the rankings!

Note – All burgers come with lettuce, tomato, onion and an excellent garlic aioli, in addition to the extras I list (though I get mine without tomatos or onion – onions taste like poison!).

In order of my favourites to least (though least favourite still being pretty darn good):

The Tropical Swine – A beef burger, with bacon, edam cheese, pineapple (love!), and tomato relish, this is one outstanding and delicious combination. The pineapple is what sets this burger above the rest, giving the burger a bigger splash of taste and propelling it from fantastic to ‘one of the best burgers I’ve ever had’. Seriously.

Chief Wiggum – Slow Roasted Pork Belly, Hash Brown and apricot seeded mustard. Wow. The crispy pork belly is SO amazing, and the apricot mustard sauce has such a wonderful and unique taste that I very nearly would put this above the Tropical Swine. It’s probably the most memorable since it is much different in texture and taste than your average burger, and everything combines together so well.

Big Al – This thing is a monstrosity. 2 beef patties, lots of cheese and bacon, 2 eggs, beetroot and a cardiac monitor, there is a lot that can go wrong with this burger. But yet, Ferg pulls it off. Eggs on a burger? GREAT! Beetroot? Very nice addition as well. The burger is pretty much the only thing you’ll need to eat for the day and it’s probably good they don’t provide nutritional information. That would only serve to frighten people off I imagine. If you can only have one burger and want a bit of everything, have a massive appetite and aren’t afraid to get messy, this is the one to get. People will take notice when you pull this behemoth out of the bag.

Cockadoodle Oink – Breaded chicken, bacon, avocado, tomato relish come together on this late entry, one of the last I tried but a very good contender and the best of the chicken burgers I sampled. This is the chicken version of the Southern Swine, but here the flavours all work together well and were much more noteworthy than in the beef counterpart. Really, you can’t go wrong with something out of the deep fryer (usually).

Little Lamby – Lamb Burger, mint jelly and tomato relish, as simple as can be for a Fergburger but it works well. The mint jelly really combines nicely with the lamb.

Mr. Big Stuff – 2 beef patties, bacon, cheese and BBQ sauce, this is a supremely messy burger to devour. But also delicious. The BBQ sauce itself is wonderfully tangy and smooth, giving the burger a bit of extra bite. To me, this is the ‘American’ Burger on the list. Not for the faint of heart, or those with heart conditions.

Bombay Chicken – Grilled Chicken that has been marinated in a ginger, chili and coriander yogurt, finished with a cucumber raita and mango chutney, this one has quite a good kick to it for spiciness, but I also found the tastes tended to blur together and the mango chutney especially got lost in the mix. Still, tasty.

Southern Swine – Beefy patty, bacon, and avocado, after the Tropical Swine, this was my #2 choice for burger I wanted to try most on the menu when I first strolled past Fergburger. While good, the flavours were nothing special compared to the rest, which had more memorable tastes. A bit lackluster given my initial high interest in the burger.

The Codfather – Fresh Blue Cod beer battered and fried and dill tartar sauce, this one I was a bit disappointed in. The tartare sauce was weak in taste, so while the blue cod was fantastically cooked, it lacked any oomph from the tartare sauce which should have set off the flavours quite a bit more. Then again, I was surprised to even see a fish burger on the menu, so I had to try it out of curiosity.

Thus ends my journey through Fergburger’s glorious menu. It was a good time. As a final goodbye, I indulged (read – barely managed to stuff the entire thing down) in the Big Al. It was a nice sendoff. YUM.

One thought on “Ranking the Fergburgers”

I’m Natalie from Lonely Planet Asia Magazine, our company based in Singapore. We are currently working on a New Zealand article for our upcoming issue, and am looking for a hi-resolution picture of Fergburger’s Big Al. (Fergburger revamping photo library, no more pics of Big Al). I chanced upon your photo, would you be able to release this picture (700kb-1mb in size) to us for print? We will be able to credit you accordingly. As we are running on a tight deadline, would truly appreciate if you could revert soonest?